First living woman whose portrait appeared on a US coin, Eunice Kennedy Shriver born in Brookline, Massachusetts

1926:

Painter, author, singer and actor, Fred Gwynne born in New York City

1945:

Actor Ron Glass born in Evansville, Indiana

1946:

Golden Globe Award winning actress Sue Lyon born in Davenport, Iowa

1947:

Musician and folk singer, Arlo Guthrie born in Coney Island, New York

1962:

Telstar communications satellite launched

1973:

Independence Day in The Bahamas

1980:

Singer and actress Jessica Simpson, born in Abilene, Texas

Quote of the Moment

A wise man will make more opportunities than he finds.

- Francis Bacon

Astrological Guide

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138:

Death of Hadrian, Roman emperor who sponsored the building of a wall across northern Britain to keep the Scots out of England. He provided a little relief in the persecution of Christians. He ordered cases against Christians tried, but he decreed that the defendants had to be proven guilty before they could be condemned. Slanderous attacks on them were forbidden. At the same time he was bitterly opposed to Judaism. For example, he had pagan altars erected on the site of the temple in Jerusalem leading to other Jewish uprisings

938:

Death of Pope Benedict VII

1024:

Death of Pope Benedict VIII

1040:

Lady Godiva rides through Coventry

1073:

Death of St. Anthony of the Caves

1086:

Death of Canute IV, King of Denmark

1099:

Rodrigo Diaz de Bivar, El Cid, died in Valencia, after the defeat of his forces against the Moors

1187:

Acre falls to Saladin

1290:

Murder of Ladislaus IV, King of Hungary

1296:

John Baliol surrenders to Edward I, King of England

1376:

The "Good Parliament" closes

1451:

James III, King of Scotland born

1472:

Heroines of Beauvais force Charles the Bold to raise seige of Beauvais

1480:

Death of Rene I, King of Naples, Sicily and Jerusalem

1509:

Protestant theologian John Calvin born

1520:

Cortes retreats from Tenochtitlan

1547:

A duel was fought at Saint Germain-en-Laye, between Francois de Vivonne, and the Lord of Jarnac, Guy de Chabot. From this duel comes the fencing term of the "coup de Jarnac" or leg cut

1559:

Henry II, King of France, dies of injuries sustained in a joust

1584:

Assassination of William of Orange

1605:

Assassination of Fyodor II, Czar of Russia

1733:

Handel's oratorio "Athalia" was premiered in Oxford. The premiere had been delayed one night because commencement ceremonies the previous afternoon had last far later than anyone had intended

1830:

Camille Pissarro, French painter of the Impressionist group. born

1832:

President Andrew Jackson vetoed legislation to re-charter the Second Bank of the United States

1856:

Nikola Tesla whose patents and theoretical work formed the basis of modern alternating current power (AC) systems, including the polyphase power distribution systems and the AC motor, born in Smiljan, Austrian Empire

1867:

Finley Peter Dunne, journalist/humorist who created Mr. Dooley. born

1871:

Marcel Proust French novelist whose masterpiece is the seven-volume Rememberance of Things Past born

1875:

Edmund Clerihew - inventor of the humorous verse named for him. born

1889:

Verdi wrote that he, quote, "won't think of obstacles, of age, of illness," and set to work composing an opera on the story of "Falstaff." Verdi was then 75 and "Falstaff" would be his last opera

1890:

Wyoming was admitted to the Union as the 44th state

1895:

Carl Orff was born into a military family in Munich. He composed songs and wrote short stories while still a child. Orff finished a large choral work based on "Also Sprach Zarathustra" when he was 17 and composed an opera the following year. born

1900:

One of the most famous trademarks in the world, "His Master's Voice", was registered with the U.S. Patent Office. The logo of the Victor Recording Company, and later, RCA Victor, shows the dog, Nipper, looking into the horn of a gramophone machine

1917:

Don Herbert -science teacher born

1919:

President Wilson personally delivered the Treaty of Versailles to the Senate, and urged its ratification

1920:

TV news anchor and commentator David Brinkley born

1921:

Eunice Kennedy Shriver born

1921:

Former boxer Jake LaMotta born

1925:

The official news agency of the Soviet Union, TASS, was established

1925:

The Scopes 'Monkey' Trial starts

1926:

Fred Gwynne actor born

1927:

Former New York City Mayor David N. Dinkins born

1928:

George Eastman demonstrated his invention of the color movie

1929:

The U.S. Government began issuing paper money in the small size that is currently used

1933:

Broadway composer Jerry Herman born

1933:

Director Ivan Passer born

1938:

Howard Hughes completed his flight around the world. It took him 91 hours to complete the Odyssey

1940:

Actor Mills Watson born

1940:

During World War Two, the 114-day Battle of Britain began as Nazi forces began attacking southern England by air. By late October, Britain managed to repel the Luftwaffe, which suffered heavy losses

The pioneer telecommunications satellite Telstar began relaying TV pictures between the United States and Europe. Telstar was the 1st geosynchonous communications satelite launched. Its concept based on the ideas of Arthur C. Clark

1965:

Rock musician Peter DiStefano (Porno for Pyros) born

1973:

The Bahamas became independent after three centuries of British colonial rule

1975:

Cher filed for divorce from rocker Greg Allman, just ten days after the couple had married. She said that Allman had been moonlighting with an old flame

1976:

Actor Adrian Grenier born

1980:

Actor Thomas Ian Nicholas born

1980:

Actress Jessica Simpson born

1983:

Schoolgirl Samantha Smith, invited to the Soviet Union by President Yuri V. Andropov, joined 200 members of a Soviet youth group for a Black Sea cruise, and tossed a bottle containing a message for peace into the water

1984:

The National League beat the American League 3-1 in the All-Star Game, played in San Francisco, in which pitchers Fernando Valenzuela and Dwight Gooden struck out six batters in a row to break a 50-year-old record

1985:

The Coca-Cola Company announced that the former (regular) Coke would return to the beverage shelves in stores. Consumers were just not happy with the New Coke. The original formula was renamed Coca-Cola Classic

1985:

The enviornmental protest ship "Rainbow Warrior was blown up and sunk in the horbor of Auckland, New Zealand. The ship was scheduled to leave on a trip to protest French nuclear tests in the South Pacific

1986:

The Federal Reserve Board cut its discount rate from 6.5 to 6 percent, its lowest level since early 1978

1987:

Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North told the Iran-Contra committees the late CIA director William J. Casey had embraced a fund created by arms sales to Iran because it could be used for secret operations other than supplying the Contras

1988:

Opposition party activists in Mexico blocked a bridge linking their country to the United States, charging that Mexico's recent presidential election was marked by widespread fraud

1989:

Mel Blanc, the "man of a thousand voices," including such cartoon characters as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and Porky Pig, died in Los Angeles at age 81

1990:

The American League shut out the National League, 2-0, in the 61st All-Star game

1990:

Mikhail S. Gorbachev handily won re-election as leader of the Soviet Communist Party

1991:

Boris N. Yeltsin took the oath of office as the first elected president of the Russian republic

In Moscow, Boris Yeltsin was inaugurated as the first freely elected president of the Russian republic

1991:

President Bush announced he was appointing Alan Greenspan to a second term as Federal Reserve chairman

1991:

President Bush lifted economic sanctions against South Africa

1992:

A federal judge in Miami sentenced former Panamanian leader Manuel Noriega, convicted of drug and racketeering charges, to 40 years in prison

1992:

A New York jury found Pan Am responsible for allowing a terrorist bomb to destroy Flight 103 in 1988, killing 270 people

1993:

President Clinton ended his visit to Japan, then traveled to South Korea, where in a speech to the National Assembly he denounced communist North Korea for raising the specter of "nuclear annihilation."

1994:

In the first meeting of its kind, Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin joined leaders of the Group of Seven nations for political talks following their annual economic summit in Naples, Italy

1995:

Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi was freed from her almost six-year-long house arrest in Rangoon, Burma

1995:

The defense opened its case at the O.J. Simpson murder trial in Los Angeles

1995:

President Clinton embraced mandatory ratings for TV programs and legislation to put parental-control chips in new sets

Ross Perot said on CNN he would make a second run for president if nominated by the Reform Party -- putting him in contention with former Colorado Governor Richard Lamm, who'd announced his candidacy the day before

1997:

President Clinton, visiting Poland, told a Warsaw square filled with cheering Poles that "never again will your fate be decided by others" following his successful drive to bring Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic into NATO by 1999

1997:

NATO forces captured one Serb war crimes suspect and killed another

1997:

Scientists in London say DNA from a Neanderthal skeleton supported a theory that all humanity descended from an "African Eve" 100,000 to 200,000 years ago

1998:

Bringing to a close one of the biggest sex scandals ever to hit the Roman Catholic Church, the Diocese of Dallas agreed to pay $23.4 million to nine former altar boys who said they'd been molested by a priest

1999:

The U.S. women's soccer team won the World Cup, beating China 5-4 on penalty kicks after 120 minutes of scoreless play at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California

2000:

Texas Governor George W. Bush, facing a skeptical audience, told the NAACP convention in Baltimore that "the party of Lincoln has not always carried the mantle of Lincoln," and promised to work to improve relations

2000:

Israeli President Ezer Weizman resigned, effectively ending a seven-year term that turned sour when he was found to have acted improperly by accepting gifts while in office

2005:

Mixed reactions to G8 summit

2005:

Birmingham UK threat was 'real and very credible'

2005:

Newspaper refuses to utilize leaked documents in article

2005:

Responsibility claim for London attacks questioned by experts

2005:

Luxembourg votes Yes to the EU treaty

2005:

UK remembers end of World War II sixty years on

2005:

North Korea to rejoin six-nation talks

2005:

New Enterprise Linux distribution on the horizon

2006:

Argentina qualify for Rugby World Cup in France next year

2006:

Building collapses in Manhattan

2006:

Four more U.S. soldiers charged with rape of 14-year-old girl, murders